ACA1221lc and the exec.library (Curiosity based Question)

Drewlio77 · Apr 9th 2021

Hi,

I own an ACA1221c and really like it's features and Configuration Utility, Acatool. I often use SysInfo to check on what libraries reside where along with the usual Speed tests (CPU and IDE). I am curious why the exec.library resides in Chipram, even when the MAPROM feature is used. This will slightly reduce the full potential of this card since the exec.library is a heavily used OS element. On other cards (mainly Phase 5 Blizzard cards), you can use FastExec to force the exec.library to Fastram. I have tried FastExec in conjunction with Acatool in the startup-sequence but they do not play well together. This is no big deal since the this card runs nice for an 68020 accelerator. The fact is, I like to squeeze out every of drop of performance from my Hardware as I can

Jens · Apr 10th 2021

The ACA1221lc starts up with memory in the $c0.0000 area enabled, so pretty much all the important stuff is in 32-bit fastmem.

Note that the $c0.0000 area is mostly seen as "slow mem", because it's in the same location as the slow memory that an A500 would have if it does not have an accelerator. However, there's a beauty to this automatically-added memory area: It will be seen so early in the startup process that even expansion library will be put there. This means that although Sysinfo is telling you that exec is located in "slow mem", it's actually in 32-bit wide fastmem. It's just that Sysinfo shows a term that merely assumes a speed from it's location.

In other words: No need for you to do anything, it's already as fast as you can have it. I'm also the kind of guy who likes to tickle out every single bit

Drewlio77 · Apr 10th 2021

Jens,

Thanks for the explanation, SysInfo does indeed show exec in Slow Mem. Now I know the difference of when it reports Slow vs Chip.